And With Every Step Together, We Just Keep On Getting Better
by SereneCalamity
Summary: They were fire when they were on stage together. It wasn't hard to imagine how that translated off stage. Troyella. Oneshot.


_I have no written Troyella in_ years _. But I kinda just got back in the mood for it. So here we go._

 _Disclaimer: I do not own the characters. Or obviously the title, which comes from a HSM song._

The Evans twins were some of the biggest names in music right now. They were incredible performers with amazing voices, and one of the reasons why people loved to go and see them live was because they always put on an amazing show. There were dancers that ran through the crowds and there were pyrotechnics that filled the areas with colours and there were confetti cannons and recently they had introduced this sort of hanging gym apparatus where a couple of trained gymnasts performed an amazing routine while suspended in the air.

 _Working_ for the Evans twins was an opportunity of a life time, it was something that definitely boosted a resume for ones who were looking at going into show business.

It was also hard.

Ryan Evans was lovely, but he was also a perfectionist. He and his sister seemed to practice all day, every day, and he expected the same thing from the rest of their employees, especially their dancers. Before he and his sister had shot to fame, he had studied and obtained a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, and had plans to go become a choreographer. There were two choreographers who organized the dancers for their shows and when they were on tour, but Ryan was there at a lot of their practices, making small changes, calling out whenever he saw someone slacking off slightly.

Sharpay Evans was another story.

She was a perfectionist as well, but she was also just a complete diva. It would actually be almost endearing if it wasn't such hard work. She had a long list of things that she demanded on the day of every show, and directly before they went on stage. If she didn't get her way, she would storm through the hallways back stage, screeching at the top of her lungs, making threats about not going on stage, even though everyone knew that she was, she loved the attention too much not to go on in front of her adoring fans.

She also had a bit of a problem with dating—or, just sleeping with—some of their performers. On their last tour, they had twelve male dancers, and it had been reported that Sharpay had been with seven of them. It wasn't unusual for people to get close when they were touring—especially when the tour went on for nearly eight months. Everyone got close, you were living, eating, breathing with these people almost every day for seven months, it was natural. But it definitely caused problems when Sharpay just moved on to her next flavor of the month, and two of the dancers had stormed out, leaving the rest to flounder with changing the routine to cover up the missing dancers, because it was too late to hire someone else to take their place.

So before this tour, Ms Alyson Darbus had a few amendments made to the contracts of everyone who was going on tour. One of those was that there was to be no relationships between _anyone_. Obviously she couldn't make Sharpay or Ryan sign the contract, but as long as the performers and stage hands knew that they were at risk of getting fired if they got involved with her, they mainly stayed clear or her, and of each other, outside of the realms of friendship.

But that wasn't the case for Troy Bolton and Gabriella Montez.

They had tried to keep it as friends.

They had tried to ignore the way that sparks flew whenever they were together.

They had tried to stop from falling for each other.

It didn't work.

"And one, two, three, four—five, six, seven, eight!" Ryan yelled out from next to Kelsi Nielson, the choreographer. The six dancers twisted together in sync, arms lifting in the air, hips rolling, legs moving together. Gabriella and Troy met in front of the other two pairs, coming together gracefully. Troy spun Gabriella around in a tight circle, holding tightly to one of her thighs as Gabriella lifted it to his hip. He dipped her down, his face moving in close to her neck, nose touching against her collarbone before moving down further, near her breasts.

Gabriella's other leg came up with a slight jump, and looped them around Troy's waist. Troy kept her dipped down, her hair nearly brushing against the floor, her trust completely in Troy to keep her safe. Behind them, the other two couples were mimicking the movements, but the fire just wasn't as bright between them as it was between Troy and Gabriella, and that was why the two of them were the main dancers.

There were eight other dancers on the tour as well—six men and two woman—but they weren't in every number like these six were, and they were background dancers, a lot of the time their moves a lot less showy than the main six.

The rehearsal came to an end with a practice to the most sultry song that the twins had released, _Dazzle Me_. Sharpay sang most of it, Ryan mainly doing the back up vocals, which was what he was most comfortable with, given how provocative the words were. Obviously, the dance moves matched the song, with the girls dropping to the floor with their legs spread wide open at the end, the boys coming up behind them and lifting them on the floor, seemingly by only one hand around their throat. The move required a lot of upper body strength on the females behalf, despite how easy it looked from the audience perspective, and the fact that it looked as though it was the male doing all the work, and it took practice to make it look flawless.

"Alright!" Ryan called out, clapping his hands together. He and Kelsi had demonstrated some of the dance moves several times, and their own faces were looking rather red, sweat beading along their hairline. Gabriella and Taylor McKessie actually had a bet that Ryan and Kelsi had something going on, and were waiting for the tour to be over before they came out in public, which would also explain their flushed cheeks. "You guys are incredible, you've nailed all the new steps to _Dazzle Me_. I think if we just fit one for rehearsal in tomorrow morning for tomorrow nights show, that'd be perfect." There were a few groans from the dancers which Ryan ignored, turning to Kelsi and talking to her quietly.

"We're incredible and we've nailed all the steps. So _why_ do we need another rehearsal?" Chad Danforth grumbled under his breath as the six walked over to where their bags were piled together at the back of the dance studio.

"We are getting paid for this shit, you realize. This is our _job_ ," Taylor told him snippily, and Gabriella and Tiara Gold exchanged amused looks, because Chad and Taylor got on each others nerves constantly. That sort of thing was bound to happen though, given they were pretty much living in each others pockets for months.

"Yeah, well, it would be nice to get a morning off," Chad muttered as he slipped into a light hoodie. Everyone else was pulling on thin material clothes over their dancing outfits, and Gabriella tipped her head back as she drank deeply from a cold bottle of water. A line escaped from the corner of her mouth, dripping from her mouth and down the line of her neck. Zeke Baylor and Chad exchanged smirks at the way Troy followed the drop of water as it traced down her neck, then down her chest, and disappeared between her cleavage, a hungry look on his face.

"Well, we'll see you guys tomorrow," Taylor said as she pulled the clips out of her hair, letting it fall down from the tight updo that was keeping it away from her face as they had practiced.

"See ya!" Gabriella called out as she clicked the lid of her bottle back on and picked up her workout bag. Tiara joined the first two girls, and the guys watched them go. Chad and Taylor might argue, but there was something a whole lot different than annoyance in his eyes as he watched the dark skinned girl walk away, and Troy snorted.

"Think a picture might serve you a better purpose there," Troy teased Chad lightly as he ran his fingers through his floppy blonde hair, cringing at how sweaty it was from their practice.

"Hey—don't think that we've missed the way that you look at little Ms Montez," Chad shot back. Troy rolled his eyes but he didn't really have a reply.

"Alright," Troy slung his bag over his shoulder. "Let's get out of here."

* * *

The six dancers were back at the studio just before seven the next morning, and by eight o'clock, they were all sweating, after running through several of the more intense dance routines. The other back up dancers were practicing as well, so at least it wasn't just the six of them who were up ridiculously early on a Saturday morning. Ryan worked closely with Troy and Gabriella, given the two of them were the ones who would be out in front, and there was a curious look on his face as he watched the two of them.

They had always danced well together, that had been one of the reasons that they had been paired together to begin with. Both of them had been dancing individually for years, and although they had done a few concerts for the same singers, it had never been at the same time. But the first time that they had danced together, it had been clear that they should be paired up.

There was something in the way that they moved together, the way they instinctively trusted each other, and that small smile they gave each other when they finished.

But there was something more now.

Troy's fingers dropped a little lower down her back, curving a little more inwards toward her ass then they had before. Gabriella's eyes glittered more brightly than they used to when they swayed together. When they did a complicated lift and flip and landed it perfectly, Gabriella let out a laugh and Troy's hands didn't move from where they were at her waist as they said something quietly to each other.

Ryan could tell there was something between them, and he was well aware of the rules that Ms Darbus had in place. He liked the pair of them, and he wasn't going to report them, although he hoped that they were actually together and they weren't just playing the whole to-and-fro thing and not talking properly.

* * *

"I'm seriously waiting for that bitch to choke on one of her froofy boa feathers," Taylor grumbled as the dancers poured off the stage. "If it doesn't haappen by accident, _I'm_ going in there to shove it down her throat." They were all hot and sticky—from the beaming lights and pyrotechnics paired together with the two and a half hours of dancing—and tempers generally started flaring after a long concert, especially after Sharpay had decided to improvise a little. She started dancing with a little more 'flair' than usual, which had messed up most of the dancers routines.

Taylor was taking it worse than the others, because Sharpay had actually smacked her in the face and split her lip. It hadn't been intentional, or at least that was what Sharpay would undoubtedly tell her later, but the little tiffs between Sharpay and Taylor were pretty well known, and it probably wasn't _entirely_ an accident.

"You alright?" Troy asked as he came over to where Gabriella and Taylor were standing in the dressing room.

"I'm so glad we've only got three weeks left. Once I'm done, I'm never going to listen to music by these two ever again," Taylor announced and Troy snorted. "Now, please excuse me, while I get out of this spray on outfit that is halfway up my ass." Gabriella gave her a sympathetic grin as she turned around and walked off. Troy and Gabriella were left standing next to each other—Gabriella in a bronze leotard that clung to her slim figure, the exact same one that Taylor was complaining about, just in a different colour, and Troy in a pair of low slung bronze sweatpants, which were nowhere near as roomy as they looked.

"She really managed to rile Taylor up this time," Troy grinned at Gabriella and the Latina smiled back at him shyly. Despite the fact that she danced in front of thousands and thousands of people several times a week, she was quiet in person, almost shy. Troy thought that it was beautiful, the way that she got out of her head, throwing herself into the dance and the music, and then retreating back inside of herself almost the minute that she stepped off stage.

There were cheers and screams from the arena, given Sharpay and Ryan were performing their encore song, which was just the two of them on stage with the band in the corner, and Troy knew that it was only a matter of minutes before the singers were coming off stage and then the changing room was going to get real busy. Almost everyone was busy with their own business, taking off make up, attempting to take out all of the pins in their hair, finishing off large bottles of water—no one was paying attention to the two in the corner of the room.

"Tonight," Troy's voice was soft as he reached out for Gabriella's hand. They touched each other so often that it was almost like a second skin, but in these moments alone—when the touches weren't because of dance—it felt as though he was discovering the softness for the first time. "Can we meet?" Gabriella's tongue darted out to lick along her lips, and she glanced over Troy's shoulder, quickly making sure that no one was paying attention to them. Her fingers moved ever so slightly, curling around his own fingers.

"It's going to be late—well after two," Gabriella replied in a hushed tone.

"I can wait up if you can," Troy responded immediately and Gabriella's smile spread across her face before she cast her eyes downward, her eyelashes fluttering against her cheeks in the most adorable way.

"Okay," Gabriella dipped her head in a nod. "I'll text you when Taylor's gone to sleep."

"I'll be waiting," Troy smiled widely at her. The cheers and squealing from the crowd got even louder, and the dancers could hear Sharpay and Ryan thanking the crowd loudly through their microphone, meaning that they were about to come off stage. Troy gave Gabriella's hand one last squeeze, and it made her stomach dip and her heart flutter, before letting go and quickly stepping away.

The only other thing that made Gabriella's night was when Sharpay realized she had broken two nails when hitting Taylor's face, and began screaming bloody murder.

 _Let me know what you think :)_


End file.
